We'd both quit our jobs at the end of September, giving us the first few days of October (2nd-7th) to go to France for Ian and Collette's wedding, then 3 nights staying at Nick and Marsha's flat in Moseley (our flat was being rented out from the start of October), before getting our flight to China on Saturday lunchtime.
Despite our best efforts (well, mostly on Hazel's part!) to get us organised weeks and months in advance, there were still a few last-minute issues to resolve before leaving. Not the least of which was N-Power assuring us that our close-of-account gas meter reading requires we pay them over £5,000, also my car insurance insisting my policy wouldn'that in order to add another driver to my policy would require them to fax the form to me and me fax it back - not something I wanted to be doing at 9 am Saturday when our flight leaves in 3 hours! The final straw was opening a letter on Saturday morning from Direct Line, who regrettably had to inform us that despite us specifically asking before we took out our Pet Insurance policy with them (for our 2 cats) that no, the policy would be void if we leave them in the care of a friend or relative. All things considered, you can understand why I'm delighted to put my troubles behind me (some would say 'grinning like an idiot) in the shot below as we prepare to board our plane:
Emirates totally lived up to expectations. Our 14 hours of flying time was nicely split by a 3-hour stop at Dubai - whose duty free was less than I expected unfortunately. I managed to squeeze in Hancock, Prince Caspian and The Happening on the 2 flights, and we arrived at the new, impressive (biggest in the world?) terminal at Beijing Airport at about lunchtime on Sunday.
Rather than get a 150 Rmb taxi from the airport into the city (at 12 Rmb to the pound that's about £12 or so), we were rather pleased with ourselves to 'do the traveller thing' and get the bus instead. 45 minutes - and a few frayed nerves - later, and everyone piles out at some place we know is near to Beijing Railway Station - except we can't see the station anywhere. After fighting off the overly enthusiastic approaches of a man with a shabby, dilapidated tricycle to take us to our hotel we instead get some very helpful people to give us a steer. The web site through which we'd booked our hotel (www.chinahotelsreservation.com, I think) provides an invaluable service on their site: when your booking is confirmed they email you a 1-page printable document that says in Chinese and English "Please take me to hotel blah", and the address of the hotel as well. Through this info our helpful passers-by tell us to go to the nearby subway, and get line 2 to Xuanwumen.
20 minutes later we're at Xuanwumen, although still none-the-wiser as to where our hotel may be - the web site isn't yet advanced enough to provide a map! It's now getting dark and all the taxis seem to be busy. So we get a pedestrian to assist, and he flags a cab, speaks to the driver (conversations of this sort seem to take twice as long as in England for some reason), and we're then in the cab for the brief ride up the road to where the hotel is... supposedly. After being given a bum-steer by a couple of people, and dragging our bags down the intimidating-at-first-but-fine-once-you're-used-to-it alleyway, the Hedong Hotel rises magnificently out of the darkness in front of us.
Surprisingly un-jet-lagged, we check in, the pop back out to the alleyway to one of the restaurants to grab some dinner before bed.
Here's a picture of us both getting on famously with the locals. If only our food ordering skills were as good, then perhaps our first meal in China wouldn't have consisted of rice with bits of egg in, with a side dish of broad beans in vinegar... Ah well, can't win 'em all!
Namaste!
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